Sunday, October 13, 2013

Each year my husband constructs one of our family's favorite after school spots ... our backyard ice rink. (It's a Minnesota thing.) Anyways, each year I pose a very important question to my students,

"How long will it take to flood the rink?"

First, I have them write down an estimated time in hours. We talk about how they came up with their estimate and if they need any additional information. They get out their paper and pencil and start brainstorming questions for me.

This is one of my favorite lessons of the year. This problem is so rich with math. Do we ever get the exact answer? No. I have done this problem for 3 years with a dozen different Geometry classes and each class obtains a slightly different estimate. I let my students lead because they ask the BEST questions. They debate about factors such as weather and time of day. Some classes add or subtract hours due to weather just as some classes add or subtract hours due to the time of day. (FYI - We do not get into water pressure and what kind of well we have at my house. Maybe this year I will check into it.)

Directions for students:1. Design a book cover in the space provided for your story.Make sure you include the title of your book and the author. (Yes, the author is you!) You can use colored pencils, markers, magazine clippings, computer generated artwork, etc.

2. Write a minimum of 8 sentences. Each sentence needs to be written as an "if-then" statement.

3. Write the conclusion (as a conditional) to your story.

Here are some examples of titles from stories this year. They are super FUN to read!

If you give unicorn a yo-yo ...

If you give a dog a donut ...

If you give a giraffe a bath ...

I used a VERY simple rubric for grading. This little project is a winner! Kids love it.

Monday, September 24, 2012

We have been studying rigid transformations in Geometry and I wanted to see where my students were at in their understanding of the material. Instead of handing out traditional Exit Slips, I decided to do something different. I placed a sign for each of the rigid transformations on my back wall. Each student got a stickie note (see below) and placed it under the correct sign. There was some debate with a few of the stickie notes and that made the activity even better!

"Translation" "Rotation" "Reflection"

After seeing so many "pins" on Pinterest about people printing on stickie notes, I knew had to try it! It worked perfectly and the most exciting part was that I didn't jam the printer! Phew!

Below are a few of the documents you can download and use in your classroom. First, print 4 templates (page 1) and then place a stickie note in each square. Print pages 2 through 5 on a stickie note filled template. It's that easy.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Besides the fact that it was near 100 degrees in my classroom, I had a great day! I'm so thankful for a last minute Pinterest check before school and discovered this activity. It took approximately ten minutes from start to finish.

I have a huge bulletin board in the back of my classroom that I use to display student work. This was the perfect spot! I grabbed two pieces of blue poster board and a wrote on one half of a sheet of bright pink paper "Math is..." and on the other half "I hope Mrs. Fisher...".

I asked my Geometry students (8th and 9th graders) to answer truthfully. Be reflective. This activity made me nervous. I wasn't sure what to expect. Here are the most common and unique of the 150 responses I received today:

Math is ...

boring but needed

hard

my weakest subject

fun

time consuming

a way to solve problems

not my favorite subject

easy

shapes and numbers

my strongest subject

better than Science

great when you know how to do it

I hope Mrs. Fisher...

teaches well

is nice (to everyone)

does fun things

doesn't give homework

gives me time to answer

explains things good

give us opportunities to learn

becomes my favorite teacher

helps me

is fair

connects with me as a student

isn't mean or grumpy

can help me reach my goal

They did a great job. This really gave me insight on how my students perceive math and what they would like from their math teacher. We are going to discuss some of their responses tomorrow as a class. I think I'm going to keep the poster boards up and use them for more "Sticky Note" answers.

Monday, September 3, 2012

My first day of school is tomorrow and I am really pumped about using Interactive Notebooks with my Geometry students. Woohoo! I've put in many hours this summer researching and am ready to put my hard work into action. Let's get this party started!

I think (hope) I have a good handle on the left and right sides of the notebook, but I'm still struggling with planning. So silly! I tried creating a sample notebook, but kept ripping out pages to rearrange them or start over. I tried a 3-ring binder with loose leaf so if (when) I messed up, I could just start a new page. That got old too. I remember seeing a planning page posted here. (Thanks for the inspiration! Great ideas.) With this being my first experience using interactive notebooks, I wanted to add space for notes and reflections. Here's what I came up with. I've been using this template for a week and so far I love it. Hope you find it useful.